While presiding over a meeting of the Punjab Revenue Authority Advisory Committee at the Punjab Assembly Committee Room, Provincial Minister for Finance Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said that during the current year all provincial tax collecting agencies, including the Punjab Revenue Authority, will follow the policy of spreading the tax net instead of increasing the tax rate, just as they had last year.
She said that change will be brought through awareness campaigns for increasing tax receipts. Improvement of the condition of the hospitals, provision of missing facilities in schools, increase in educational scholarships, agriculture reforms, the availability of clean water, better transport and law and order situation, and the reduction of the electricity crisis will motivate people to pay their tax, she added.
The offensive and vindictive attitude of tax collecting agencies will be discouraged and appellant tribunals will be fully empowered to take legal action against the responsible impartially, she said.
Finance Special Secretary Saif Ullah Dogar, former chief economist of Pakistan Dr Pervaiz Tahir, Senator Khurram Zafar, PRA Operations Member Javed Ahmed, Policy Member Dr Uzma Akram, and Additional Commissioner Shahzad Mehmood Gondal also participated in the meeting.